This paper matches a comprehensive Danish employer-employee data set with individual
crime information (timing of offenses, charges, convictions, and prison terms by crime type) to
estimate the impact of job displacement on an individual’s propensity to commit crime. We
focus on displaced individuals, i.e. high-tenure workers with strong attachment to their firm,
who lose employment during a mass-layoff event. Pre-displacement data suggests no evidence of
endogenous selection of workers for displacement during mass-layoffs: displaced workers’ propensity
to commit crime exhibits no significantly increasing trend prior to displacement; and the
crime rate of workers who will be displaced is not significantly higher than the crime rate of
workers who will not be displaced. In contrast, displaced workers’ probability to commit any
crime increases by 0.52 percentage points in the year of job separation. The effects are driven by
the propensity to commit property crime, which increases by 0.38 percentage points, or about
26% of the population-wide average. The substantial post-displacement earnings losses, coupled
with the effects on property crime, are consistent with Becker’s (1968) economic theory of crime.
Marital dissolution is more likely post-displacement, and we find small intra-family externalities
of adult displacement on younger family members’ crime. The impact of displacement on crime
is stronger in municipalities with higher capital and labor income inequalities.

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According to the Competition Act, a merger that impedes eective competition signi cantly, in particular by creating or strengthening a dominant postition, shall be prohibited. To decide whether this is the case the authorities need a quanti able model of the relationship between the variables that are directly aected by the merger and some measure of competition. In this paper we set up and calibrate a simple model of the interaction of the retail and the wholesale markets for high-end cosmetics in Denmark based on the Matas case. The model predicts that the acquisition of Matas - comprising roughly half of the market for high end cosmetics - may have a significant on retail prices and that the authorities had good reasons for making its approval conditioned on the removal of a number of contract-based barriers to entry. Analytically the main results are: (1) In a linear model with constant marginal costs the optimal wholesale prices are unexpected by the structure in the retail sector. (2) The ect on of buyer-power induced quantity dioscounts depends on the speci c design of the scheme: A relative discount on the list price the independent shops are charged increases the average retail price; A xed reduction relative to the pre-merger price reduces the average retail price). (3) Buyer-power induced retail price maintenance (RPM) increases the average retail price. RPM increases the competitiveness and pro ts of the merged shops if producers keep whole-sale prices unchanged. If, however, the producers adjust their wholesale prices, then RMP hurts merged and independent shops alike and benefits only the producers.

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Real income on Bornholm is described by comparing the region with the
capital area and the country. Region specific prices are constructed for housing
expenditure and for services. Weights for these parts of household budgets and the
residual are found from panel surveys of household consumption. Relative prices of
the consumption bundle for each year in the period 1987 to 1996 are found for both
those who own there dwelling and those who rent it. Median incomes for
entrepreneurs, employees and workers are constructed. Combining data on incomes
and on relative prices gives estimates of real incomes. The result is that households of
employed persons are relatively rich on Bornholm during the period.

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A new local government structure is announced for Greenland from 2009. If the reform is carried through, Nanortalik the most southerly town will come together with Qaqortoq, then the new centre, and Narsaq. A suggestion by the mayor of Nanortalik about the number of civil servants that should move to the centre is the basis for calculating the potential loss of gross income (wages and profits) in the first years of the reform. With the civil servants follow some adults and children. On top of the direct loss of income come derived losses determined by a multiplier process. The size of the multiplier is estimated to be around 1,25. This is based on assumptions about income levels, expenditure patterns, and local income parts of sales. Full implementation of the reform could mean a loss of 5 plus percent of gross income. If other probable losses (e.g. fewer elected members of the local authority) are added in, the loss could rise to more than 7 percent. Tax rates are assumed not to be lowered by the departure of civil servants to the centre. To the contrary an increase in the tax rate for Nanortalik is envisaged as this small town in these years enjoys an advantage from taxing local people and foreign skilled workers operating a nearby gold mine. It is stressed that the paper doesn’t evaluate the proposal for a reform, neither for the South of Greenland nor for Greenland as a whole. It is about possible very short term local effects

We consider the economic implications of a compressed wage structure
which is exogenously determined by institutions. An important
feature of our analysis is that human capital is endogenous and can
be achieved either as formal education or as informal training within
firms after entering the labour market. While institutional wage compression
decreases the incentives of individuals to become educated, it
increases the incentives of firms to invest in training. As a result, the
net effects of wage compression on the aggregate human capital level
and GDP are ambiguous. Moreover, with wage compression, a skillbiased
technological change may cause wage inequality to decrease.
Keywords: Wage compression, training, education, inequality, institutions,
skill-biased technological change.
JEL: I21, J31, J5, O33.

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We examine the impact of discrimination on labour market performance when workers are subject to a risk of losing skills during an unemployment experience. Within a search and matching framework, we show that both natives and immigrants are affected by discrimination. Discrimination in one sector has positive spill-overs, inducing employment to increase in the other sector and
the effect on labour market performance therefore depends on whether discrimination is present in only one sector or in both sectors. Discrimination may induce workers to train more or less than natives after having lost their skills, dependent upon which sector there is discrimination. Net output tends to the be most negatively affected by discrimination among high-skilled workers.

We examine the impact of discrimination on labour market performance when workers are subject to a risk of losing skills during the experience of unemployment. Within a search and matching model, we show that all natives and immigrants are affected by discrimination. Discrimination in one sector has positive spillovers, inducing employment increases in the other sector. Discrimination may induce immigrants to train more or less than natives, depending on the sector where it is present. Welfare tends to be most negatively affected by discrimination among highproductivity workers.

This paper studies labour market policy in a society where differently gifted individuals can invest in training to further increase their labour market productivity and where the government seeks both effiency and equity. Frictions in the matching process create unemployment and differently skilled workers face different unemployment risks. We show that in such an environment, training programmes that are targeted to the unemployed complement passive transfers (UI benefits), unlike a general training subsidy. Combining passive subsidies with a training subsidy conditioned on the individual being unemployed (for a while) - the typical Active Labour Market Programme - implies a favorable trade-off between equity and efficiency which encourages high spending on training.

This paper studies how interest group lobbying of the bureaucracy affects policy
outcomes and how it changes the legislature’s willingness to delegate decision-making
authority to the bureaucracy. We extend the standard model of delegation to account
for interest group influence during the implementation stage of policy and apply it
to different institutional structures of government. The paper addresses the following
questions: First, how does the decision to delegate change when the bureaucratic agent
is subject to external influence? What cost does this influence impose on the legislative
principal? Finally, how susceptible are policy choices to bureaucratic lobbying under
different government structures? In answering these questions, the paper seeks to provide
a comparative theory of lobbying and to explain the different patterns of interest
group activity across political systems.

This paper uses a register dataset for the entire Danish population to examine the effect of early
motherhood on labour market measures, health care measures and family measures for the mothers
and their offspring. The dataset is divided into three groups according to the age of the woman at
the time of her first child delivery. Using standard cross-sectional econometric techniques the
results show that very young mothers (aged 16-21) have significantly lower employment rates,
higher propensity to receive welfare benefits and a lower wage income. Children of very young
mothers have a higher family replacement rate, more services received from General Practitioners
and a higher propensity to receive ADHD-medications. The majority of the effects reported are also
significantly greater for mothers who were aged 22-25 at the birth of their first child compared to
older mothers.

Over the last 25 years the Danish economy has had difficulties in growing as fast as
other EU countries and the United States. While the average growth difference is small, it
signals that if this trend persists into the next century, Denmark will not be able to maintain its
high position in the world income hierarchy. Moreover, during these years, the number of
individuals living on transfer incomes have increased dramatically. Although we interpret
both tendencies as signals of structural weaknesses, we are also aware that these developments
may reflect that other goals in economic policy have been pursued, such as protecting the
environment and/or achieving certain redistributive objectives. This paper analyzes this and
other broad policy issues of importance for Denmark.